Five Best Places to Meet a Man This Fall

My friend Alix, who told me there were no good places to meet men any more, challenged me to prove her wrong. I accepted that challenge, since, you know, she's totally wrong and she knows it...

Halloween Party

I like to call Halloween the horniest holiday of the year. It's the Spanish Fly of holidays, except that Halloween exists. It's the holiday were women dress up as fetishistic fantasy dates (I'm a sexy... nurse! I'm a sexy... librarian! I'm a sexy... kitten!) and men feel weirdly confident behind their disguises (many of them are in fact dressed as women, which adds a completely different strain of fantasy). Everyone's approachable, and approached, on Halloween.

I don't even think you need to go to a Halloween party to meet someone. Just get dressed up and walk around Rite Aid and someone will start talking to you.

I don't know if you have one where you live, but I have it on good authority that the one in downtown Manhattan and the one in Boulder Colorado are basically organic-man-stands. Jenny, my friend who lives in Boulder, says it's something to do with the nesting instinct of buying fancy produce. You just kind of want to cook for someone. She also recommends the hot cider line in particular: it's the speed-dating room of the farmer's market.

3)__ Flu Shot Muster Statio__n

This is a weird one, but my friend Peter said he met two very attractive and cool women waiting in line at a local drugstore. You can make funny jokes about swine with thermometers in their mouths and reassure each other that you're not hypochondriacs.

Non-Sports Bar on Football Sundays

This is my friend Sasha's favorite place to watch a game: any restaurant that has a good bar, decent burger, and a television, but isn't a dedicated wings-and-pitchers-and-dudes-in-Favre-jerseys place. You can have a conversation, you'll be one of the only women there, and you don't have to eat anything that has cheese stuffed into the crust.

Weekday Brunch Spot

Sasha, who's freelance, said that she's been meeting more and more interesting people at the local eggs benedict spot during the week. Because, since the economy is so screwey, more and more people are freelance like her, and eating brunch, than she's ever seen before.

What is your number one man-meeting-spot? Or is it plain dumb to go out looking for men? As many smart people have said: you'll meet someone when you're not looking.